Souls of Clay and Fire
by TheAzureWyvern
Summary: The day of the Yamaku Festival has arrived, and Hisao has nothing to do. However, when a student mysteriously disappears, Hisao is sent to find her. However, what Hisao doesn't know is that there is far more to this simple search than he could have ever imagined.


**Chapter 1: The Invader**

Yuna Yamada slowly walked down the dark hallway, with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a lightweight cane in the other. She heard only two noises as she proceeded down the corridor: first, the smooth and melodic tapping of her cane, given a sharper edge by the second sound, the even baseline of her own footsteps. It had something of a musical nature to it by design; since starting at Yamaku, she found that long walks become exceptionally boring after a short time, and she created a game where she would walk in some sort of rhythm. She had been following her typical morning ritual, leaving the dorm room of her boarding school to get coffee and a bite to eat before returning to get dressed, and was now making her return trip. However, the routine she had followed religiously since attending Yamaku Academy had, for the first time, been irrevocably shattered, never to be again repaired. Her fate may have been sealed the minute she awoke, and maybe even farther in advance than that. But she couldn't help feeling as if today was the day that her life was going to change.

Today, she had awoken several hours early, well before the sun began peeking through the curtains of her window. Or at least, she assumed it was well before. It was entirely possible that the sun was already moving up above the horizon and into the sky above, and that it wasn't really as early as she imagined it was, but it wasn't as if she had a sighted friend nearby to confirm. She thought about it for a while, more out of a need to entertain herself with the idea of what the early morning looks like than out of any care for what time it was. Some ways through her walk, however, she heard something different about the tapping of her cane. Normally, it made a gentle clicking sound as it struck the cold tile of the school. " _Click-click-click. Click-click-click._ " What she had just heard was no normal " _Click-click-click_ ," but instead a _"Click-click-crunch_." Bending down carefully, so as to not spill her drink, she grabbed the source of the anomalous sound underneath her cane. She picked it up, and instantly recognized it as paper. But it was by no means a normal paper.

It was a rough and thick paper, surprisingly so for only having been folded in on itself once. She flipped the paper open and felt the inside. Sure enough, this paper was not smooth and soft, like normal paper. It was rough and hard, slightly closer to cardstock or an index card than normal paper. On the surface of the page, she felt the familiar surface of braille. Yuna moved her hand precisely and deliberately, avoiding dropping the paper as she ran her fingers across its edges through the impressive dexterity required by one who has to use their hands to see. The edges of the page were sharp and firm, as opposed to the dull softness of worn paper. She learned two things from this. Firstly, the fact that the paper had clean and defined edges told her that it was made recently. The lack of wear on the braille supported this. She could conclude that this was dropped recently, and was done shortly after being made. Had it fallen on the ground even during the day yesterday, it would surely have been crumpled and weathered as kids walked on it all day. Second, the fact that it was written in braille told her that this was left here intentionally. She considered it unlikely that someone would have a braille note fall out of their hands and be forgotten, given that braille notes are typically difficult to make, requiring one to own a brailler and have a frequent need to use it. This was supported when she considered where she was in the dorms, and she couldn't think of any other even partially blind students who lived in this hall. If it was on the ground, Yuna concluded, and written in braille, then there's a good chance that she specifically was meant to find it. As she continued walking, she ran her fingers over the note to read.

 _Yamada Yuna, my darling,_ it began. _It has been quite some time since we were last close together. I'm waiting for when I can hold you in my arms, as close as we can possibly be, together again. I'm waiting for when I can sit down, with you in my lap, and give you feelings and sensations in the way your nerves cannot. I'm waiting for when I can…_ Okay, she really didn't need to read that next part just yet. Flattering as it was, it might be better to save that for another occasion, when she was alone to herself. She moved on down to the second paragraph.

 _With that Hakamichi girl breathing down my neck to work on the class booth at the festival, I can barely slip away to catch my breath! I know you're busy too, but if you have a spare moment this morning, you know where you can find me. I await your love, my darling Yamada Yuna…_

Yuna smiled at the letter. It had been some time since her boyfriend had seen her, and it felt as if it were as long as since she'd seen him. On the one hand, she knew what her responsibilities were; if she didn't show up to her classroom on time to help with the booth, she'd be disappointing her class representative and disappointing herself. But, on the other hand, there was sex. Strictly speaking, was it necessary that she meet with her lover now? Not remotely. Could she just as easily wait until later on in the festival to see him? Absolutely. It was clear to her exactly what decision she should make about this. It's what any logical, responsible person would do in her situation. Which is precisely why she swallowed her still nearly boiling coffee as quickly as she could, spilling some on her hands and wondering if the whole "most of the nerves in your skin were made unusable by a rare virus" thing didn't have some silver lining to it, and charged off towards the unused classroom that she had so many times met her beloved in for a romantic encounter.

As she rounded the final corner to the hallway in which the room lie, the rhythm of her feet and cane increasing its tempo in time with her heart, all she could feel was anticipation. Anticipation for what came next. Anticipation for what deeds her lover had in store for her on this early morning excursion. Anticipation… for… well…

Where ever her train of thought had been leading her, it had derailed to the point where she had no hope of interpreting its course. It had become overwhelmed by thoughts of sex, of ecstacy, of the powerful sensations she would soon feel in what few parts of her body still had working nerves. She opened the door enthusiastically, found a desk to sit on near the middle of the room, and waited.

"Oh, my love, Sora! Where are you now," she said. Sure, she knew that speaking in this manner was completely unnecessary, and just downright silly. The thing is, she didn't even remotely care. It's not like anyone other than her boyfriend would be around to hear her, and even if they did, the sensual tone of her voice should lead them to realize that this was not the time or the place to ask questions about it. Yuna's mind was overtaken by her need for her Sora's love, and the poetic language they used only helped keep her in that state. "My Sora," she cried, "I am here for you now! Take me as you will!"

She heard footsteps moving towards her. They were slow, carefully considered footsteps, the sort of footsteps which signified that their owner had not left a single one to chance or mishap. The sound of footsteps echoed off of the walls of the room and enclosed in on Yuna.

"Sora! I'm here for you, Sora!"

The figure moving towards Yuna halted for a moment, as if preparing a response. It cleared its throat, and spoke.

"Yes, my darling. I am here for you in return." The voice was rather deep, as if belonging to a man whose middle age was in sight. It was a voice that was calm, concise, and all too constructed and artificial. The voice had that sense of trying just a touch too hard to sound natural, a voice which betrayed a sinister tone below its seeming refinement. To someone who had been a bit more careful than Yuna was at the moment, it would be clear that something was very wrong with it.

"Oh, Sora, my love," she said. "I've waited for you for so long! Come here, my dear Sora!"

"With pleasure, my dear Yuna Yamada."

The being began to pick up speed in its approach to Yuna. It was moving faster and faster, from a slow, menacing encirclement to a swift lunge. Had Yuna been aware of it, she might have likened it to a wolf moving to strike its prey. But, she had not been aware of it, and it took her entirely by surprise.

Yuna had always been a fan of tragedy. Poetry, theater, classical art, you name it, as long as it had irony that could bring her to tears, she was all for it. It is precisely her love of irony, however, that prevented her from realizing the tragedy of her current situation.

The all-consuming love that she had cultivated in her relationship with her Sora was one born of circumstantial necessity; the virus that removed the feeling in most of her body had left her seeking intimacy in other forms. When she placed herself in this state of mind, she blinded herself to the world around her, willingly so, for the sake of feeling fulfilled by the presence of another. Her willingness to give up her entire self had made her the perfect prey for the slowly approaching predator that now shared the room with her. Her total disregard for what she might have found upon entering the room, and her choice to leave her usual careful perception at the door, kept her from realizing that she hadn't been hearing the slow footsteps of her lover advancing towards her; she had been hearing two sets of steps. She called out once more.

"Sora? Is that you, my Sora? Please come closer, Sora! I need you near me now! I need you _on_ me now! I need you now!"

And with that final request, she had truly and finally sealed her fate, if she had not done so earlier.

These were the things that young Yuna Yamada could not see:

She could not see that the individuals she shared the room with were both considerably larger and heavier than her sturdy yet light lover.

She could not see that her lover, who she needed so dearly and so desperately in more ways than she knew, was not in fact here, but instead sleeping peacefully in his own bed.

She could not see that the door had been closed without her touching it, that the lights had been forced off, or that there was not a single ornament or piece of furniture in the room.

And, most tragically of all, even if she could see, even if she could feel, even if she could have her lover there to give her comfort-

She would still not be able to see the being that was slicing the hole in her chest, that was slowly drawing her into slumber, that was preparing to bring her life to an end.

Hisao Nakai slowly walked down the bright hallway, with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and nothing in the other. He hadn't heard a single noise as he proceeded down the hallway, although it's not like he would have been paying enough attention to notice had there been sound. Breaking away from his usual morning ritual, he sat down on his bed and stretched out. He wasn't terribly happy with being awake at this hour, especially not when he was waking up because he was nearly having heart attacks sporadically throughout the night. Although he knew he would simply have to live with them, something just didn't seem right about the idea that getting an eight-hour rest on a given night was a crapshoot. He stood up and sighed, and went over to his night stand to take his medications. If nothing else, he decided that he would have to speak with his doctor about increasing his night dose.

But, in spite of all this "chronic arrhythmia" silliness, he was determined to have a good day today. Today was the day of the Yamaku Academy spring festival, and he was going to enjoy today whether his disability wants him to or not. On his way out of his room, he finished his coffee and grabbed a grape soda from the nearby vending machine for later. As he headed out the boys dormitory and onto the school grounds, he tried to decide what exactly he was going to do during the festivities. It wasn't as if he was lacking in options; he sometimes wondered how much of his time at Yamaku hadn't been spent making friends in as awkward of a manner as he could manage. The way he saw it, he had three options. Firstly, he could go see Lilly, and see how the Class 3-3 noodle stand was doing. Although it wasn't his class, he had spent a bit of time with Lilly lending his hands and eyes to the class for the blind, and was curious as to how well they were keeping up with the hundreds of people now on school grounds. Secondly, he figured, he could go see Shizune and Misha, and give the overworked Student Council members a much needed hand with their work. Between Shizune's masochistic desires for stress and responsibility, and Misha's having to stand with her hands free to translate whatever Shizune needs to say or hear into sign language for her, there was no way those two were just taking it easy on the day they had spent two months preparing for. Thirdly, he could go see Rin and Emi, and have the two of them drag him across the festival, bouncing from attraction to attraction. He figured that those two would be the least likely to have him doing anything that could evolve into working, but in the end, he felt that he really only had one choice.

This feeling was confirmed as soon as he reached the noodle stand. Despite Lilly's friendly and comforting voice and demeanor, it was plain to see that Class 3-3 was barely keeping it together. A single cook was putting portions half the size of what should be reasonable for the plate was moving at lightspeed, trying to get orders out as quickly as possible given her absent eyesight, while both students and teachers unloaded boxes in the back. The contrast between how urgently and efficiently they tried to move and the speed at which they actually ended up moving was a bit unnerving for Hisao. After waiting for the line to dwindle down a bit, he went up and made his order.

"Could I get a bowl of ramen, please?"

Lilly directed what would otherwise be her gaze at him, thought for a moment to place the voice, and then spoke.

"Hisao? Is that you?"

"Spot on. It looks like the breakfast rush is slowing down. How's it going over here," he asked.

"It is not exactly an ideal situation," she said. "For one, barely half the class actually showed up to help. We have had to request the help of several teachers just so that we can keep running five minutes behind where we need to be."

"Yikes. What happened?"

Lilly thought for a moment. "Well, I would have to guess it started early this morning. The person who was supposed to gather people to help unpack the boxes of food just never showed up. She is usually timely and responsible, so I assume that people figured that they would not have to show up until she did. I have no idea as to what has gotten into her."

Hisao took a moment to think about that. One the one hand, he wanted to criticize the girl for Lilly's sake. She seemed like she needed to vent, but was too polite to do so. On the other hand, he wasn't sure that he was ready to speak poorly of some girl he didn't know behind her back like this. He tried to find a solution somewhere in between what Lilly needed and what his conscience required.

"Is there any way I can help," he asked.

"Actually, I think there is," she said. "Do you think you could find out what happened to her, and maybe even convince her to come over here and help?" It wasn't quite what Hisao had been hoping for, but he accepted it anyway.

"Sure, I'll keep an eye out. What was her name?"

Lilly carefully wiped her loose blond hair out of the way, so as not to lose any or get noodle oil on her hand.

"I believe it was Yuna Yamada," she said. "If you find her, try to send her along to me if you can."

 _Yuna Yamada… Why does that name ring a bell?_

"Sure enough. See you later, then, Lilly."

"I'll see you later, Hisao." And with that, Hisao took his noodles and left. He looked for a seat somewhere nearby, finding a bench to sit at in the courtyard. As he ate, he realized that he still hadn't formally made a plan for the day. Sure, he had agreed to help Lilly find that Yuna girl, but that wasn't really a plan. More of a passive goal that he would need to try to accomplish at some point in the day. That's not to say that he intended to just blow off Lilly's request; it's just that he had no idea how to even start making a plan for that. Ultimately, Hisao decided to just sit down and observe the festivities for a bit while he ate his food.

Hisao had been told that the spring festival was one of Yamaku Academy's biggest events of the year. He could see the truth in that from where he sat on the bench. The Yamaku campus was massive, one of the largest school campuses he had ever been on. Near one end lay the school itself, and on either side were the male and female dorms. It formed almost a U-shape, with a short brick wall encasing the campus and ending in a gate on the opposite side from the school. Inside the wall was an area that could be best described as a public park, complete with street lamps, sidewalks with handrails, and benches. Despite the fact that this courtyard was reasonably large, and that it would take several minutes to move from one side to the other even at a brisk pace on a normal day, visitors were packed into the area. It seemed as if the whole park was swarming with people. Hisao could easily see someone getting lost in the crowds, even if you knew exactly where you were going. If it weren't for the parents and grandparents holding their children's hands as they moved, one would be encountering lost kids left and right.

After about an hour had passed, Hisao came to a realization; he was surprisingly at ease during the festival. For most people, he imagined, it would be unsettling to have vast crowds of strangers moving in and out through the place you live in, even if just for a day. He could imagine how bothered he would have been had he seen hundreds of unfamiliar people moving through his neighborhood one day, and how stressed out he would feel from it. He figured this would be especially true given that the majority of Yamaku's students are here by necessity. They would have difficulty living in their own homes far from trained medical professionals, due to their disabilities. However, the amount of people here didn't bother Hisao much at the moment. It felt relaxing for him, and almost comforting in its familiarity. He supposed this was due to him still being new to the private school life; he had just transferred here a week ago, and before then he had been attending a fairly typical Japanese public school. By comparison to his old school, he soon realized, Yamaku felt almost a bit too open and empty. He suspected that, after being alone in a hospital for months and transferring to this smaller school, he had begun to crave the crowds that he had once had residing in and attending school in the city. He wondered what his life would be like had he not transferred to this school. What would it be like having to manage his heart condition on his own? How would his relationships change when he was the only one different from the others? How would he-

Suddenly, he was pulled from his introspection by a sudden darkness. He could feel foreign hands covering his eyes, followed by giggling.. Startled by the interruption, he lost his train of thought.

"Guess who~?"

It didn't take hearing her voice for Hisao to realize who the owner was. After all, there was really only one person he knew who would use such a silly game to announce their presence.

"How's it going, Misha," he asked. The hands pulled away from his eyes instantly, and he turned around to talk to the person behind him.

"Aww, how'd you know it was me," Misha pouted. Hisao turned around fully to look her in the eyes.

"Because you're the only person in the world who plays that 'guess who' game. And you're not even all that good at it."

A slightly disappointed Misha returned his glance with the faintest tinge of offense.

"I am too good at it! You're just being mean, Hicchan!" As much as that nickname bothered Hisao, he had given up saying anything to her about using it. She wasn't doing it intentionally; she just referred to all her friends by the -chan nickname.

"When's the last time someone didn't know it was you immediately," he asked. Misha looked away.

"Shicchan saw you just sitting there for a while, so we thought we should come over," she said, dodging his question with a level of finesse he didn't know she was capable of. Shizune, who had been standing just to Misha's left, said something Hisao couldn't interpret in sign language to him. As she did so, Misha translated.

"Are you working hard or hardly working, Hicchan" she said.

"Well, at the moment, I was enjoying a peaceful day at the festival."

"All on your own?" Hisao didn't trust the highly suspect look Misha had in her eyes as she said that. Subtlety was not her strong suit, and it occurred to him that he should choose his next words carefully.

"Yes… actually, I was still looking for someone to talk to hang out with. Know anybody who might be interested?" He could hear the apprehension dripping from his own voice, but hoped that Misha would miss it as she usually does.

"Wahahaha~" Misha laughed. "Hicchan, are you asking me to set you up with someone?"

 _Shit,_ Hisao thought. _Mission failed._ He could feel his cheeks turning red, partially out of embarrassment, and partially out of concern as to what sort of person Misha would try to set him on a date with. Despite her less-than-serious tone, he was afraid that she had actually considered the idea. He began looking for a way out.

Between fits of giggling at her own joke, Misha managed to bring out a complete sentence. Meanwhile, Shizune continued to sit off to the side, impatiently waiting for her translator to finish having her fun. She clearly had something to say.

"I'm just kidding, Hicchan… but seriously though, how are you enjoying the festival~?"

"It's good. I can see all your work paid off."

Once Misha had finished signing his compliment back to Shizune, her mood seemed to lighten a bit. Shizune straightened her glasses pridefully, and signed something back to Misha.

"Shicchan says she's glad you think so."

"How's it going on your end? Are your Student Council responsibilities keeping you from the festival much?"

Misha suddenly broke her chipper demeanor for a moment as she signed what Hisao had said, but regained it just as quickly. Shizune hesitated for a moment, and responded.

"There have been a few rough spots. A certain class representative can't seem to keep track of all her students, so we've had to pick up her slack."

Although Hisao knew exactly how biting of a tone Shizune had intended her comment to have, it lost every bit of its edge as the words left Misha's mouth. On some level, he figured that Shizune knew about Lilly's trouble with her class's attendance at the festival, and he knew that she wouldn't miss even the slightest chance to angrily comment on it. As Shizune began to start signing again, he realized that she was about to go off on the currently absent Lilly. Taking advantage of the moment before she finished signing, Hisao tried to redirect the conversation.

"Yeah I heard about that. Some Yuna girl just didn't show up when she should have, right?"

Just as he had hoped, Misha started translating the second Hisao started speaking, interrupting Shizune's statement. While Shizune would probably be annoyed at him under normal circumstances, he had been betting on her mistaking his slightly impolite interruption for Misha's personal lack of tact. Shizune responded to Misha, who relayed the message.

"Yep, Yuna Yamada is absent. Apparently, nobody's seen her since waaay early this morning. We were just looking for her when we saw you~."

"How's the search going," he asked.

"Well… we're having trouble finding her…" Misha began.

There were two things that Hisao knew the moment the words left her mouth. Firstly, he knew that the search hasn't turned up any leads. The fact that he could hear Misha's disappointment told him that Shizune was furious about the whole situation. She was never one for unscheduled events, unless they were to her advantage, and that was certainly not helping with her animosity towards Lilly. He started to feel bad for Misha, as she was probably having to deal with all of Shizune's frustration. He started to feel bad, however, until Misha finished her statement.

"...we think we might have one lead, but Shicchan doesn't really have time to look into it…"

And there it was. Shizune and Misha were about to ask for his help in finding Yuna as well. There wasn't really any way to get out of it; while Lilly would probably have understood if he hadn't found the time to help look, Shizune and Misha were exceptionally more persistent. Hisao wasn't going to easily get out of anything those two asked him to do.

"What's your lead," he asked. Misha's face lit up at his offer to help. Shizune started signing.

"~Well, we heard that the last person who saw her said she was going back to her room. Shicchan thinks you should check there first~" Shizune pulled a pen from behind her ear, wrote something on a slip of paper, and handed it to Hisao.

"~Here's her room number. If anyone asks, just say we sent you to grab something from our rooms," Misha explained.

"Can do. Hope the rest of the festival is a bit less stressful for you guys," he said as he headed off for the girls dorms. "See you later!"

"~Bye, Hicchan~!" Misha called after him.

Hisao made his way through the girls dorms, taking note of the lack of activity in them. Even in the boys dorms, there were still plenty of people milling about as the festival went on outside. By contrast, there were significantly less people around in the girls dorms. He didn't mind too much, as it saved him a number of weird looks and odd questions about what he was doing. Sure, people would have believed that he was just running errands for Shizune and Misha, but that still wouldn't have helped him feel any less awkward. He pulled out the note Shizune had given him, and started looking for the door.

"Let's see… this hall is the 120s… on this side is the evens… so Room 129 should be-"

A rustling noise near the back of the hall caught his attention. Normally, he wouldn't have thought anything of it, since it would be only natural to hear noise in a dorm room. However, he was looking for someone who's been strangely missing; it would only make sense that they might too know that they're being looked for. Hisao proceeded with caution.

The noise came from the opposite side of the hall, so there would be plenty of time for the source to realize that Hisao had noticed it. He walked slowly but carefully towards that end of the room, being sure to keep his voice sounding as neutral as possible.

"Here's 221… 222… 223…"

He didn't hear the sound again, but he also wasn't about to let his guard down. He continued moving carefully, getting more tense with every step. His unease built up, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.

"224… 225… 226…" He stopped for a moment and listened.

Still nothing.

Hisao took a few careful steps forwards. The hall was fairly long, and there was quite a bit of space between rooms. Just as he placed his next foot down, he heard a barely audible creak from one of the doors down the hall. He was getting close. He had a bad feeling, like something was about to happen. He could feel his heart increase in speed a touch.

"227…" He looked to his right and his left. He still didn't see anything. But he knew that someone was close to him. Very close.

He could hear their breathing.

It was a bit heavy breathing, and just the slightest bit strained. Hisao took another step forwards.

"228…"

The breathing grew fainter as he reached the door of Room 228. He continued on to his target.

"Here's Room 229," Hisao said aloud. Under other circumstances, he wouldn't have said anything. But now… he felt that he had to. As if to reassure someone. He turned to the door of the room, and gave a knock.

"Is anyone home," he asked.

"..."

No response. He tried knocking again. He stuttered for a minute; the tension was getting to him.

"Hello? Is there a Yuna Yamada here?"

The silence continued. Hisao didn't know what to do now. He had tried knocking, and didn't get an answer. His gaze moved around the door as he waited. His eyes fell on the nameplate. It had two rows where paper could be slipped in and out. The top row read "Room 229" in a rather fancy font. Below it, in the same font, read "Resident: Yamada Yuna." Or at least, that's what it should have read. The paper itself was incredibly weathered, far more than it should be for a nametag on a door. It looked as if it had been torn out of the plate, balled up, then flattened back out and placed back in. It was as if whoever had been here last wanted to change the name out, but changed their mind and tried to put it back in as it had been. This concerned Hisao. He knocked again, a bit more hurriedly this time.

"Yuna? Are you in there?" Every second that he didn't receive an answer only served to grow his sense of dread.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on the back of his shoulder.

In terror, he spun around to face whatever was behind him. Before his brain had fully processed what he was seeing, he heard a quiet but sharp yelp of fear, followed instantly by the sound of someone jumping and hitting the ground.

Hisao staggered for a moment, the speed of his heart still increasing. He began taking deep breaths to steady himself, and to try to slow down his heart rate. The last thing he needed right now was for his heart to have one of its episodes on him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds as he breathed, then opened them.

In front of him, he saw a thin girl with long dark hair. She was dressed in the standard school uniform, minus the bowtie and with one of the top buttons unbuttoned, as if she had just been in the middle of changing but had to quickly stop and redress. But, as much as he hated to admit it, the biggest thing he noticed was the outline of scarring on her face and hands, barely hidden by her hair. His classmate's facial features were still a dead giveaway.

"Oh, hey Hanako," Hisao said. "Sorry there, you just startled me."

Hanako had positioned herself a few feet away from him, clearly taken by surprise by his sudden response. As soon as he had looked at her, she had started trying to regain her composure. He could see that she was incredibly stiff, with her arms held straight against her sides and her hands balled tightly into fists.

"H-H-Hello, Hisao…" she stuttered. "A-Am I interrupting something?"

"No, I'm just a bit on edge at the moment. How are you?"

As soon as he asked the question, he realized that it was a mistake. Hanako froze like a deer in headlights. Hisao could see the sudden worry in her eye not covered by her hair as she tried to formulate a response.

"I-I'm fine," she said.

 _Well, as fine as she usually is_ , he added mentally. He took a moment to think, then began to speak.

"Hey Hanako, do you know anything about a student by the name of Yuna Yamada?"

Now that the conversation was directed away from her, Hanako seemed to relax slightly.

"Y-yes…" she began. "Sh-she lives a bit down the hallway. You were at her d-door just then…" Hisao nodded in response.

"Right. The thing is, nobody's seen her since this morning, and nobody knows where she is at the moment. Do you know anything about where she might be?"

Hanako looked at him in confusion for a moment. "Yuna Yamada is missing? Lilly says she's… usually pretty dependable..." Hanako drifted off into her own thoughts.

Hisao sighed. In hindsight, he wasn't quite sure why he thought Hanako would be of any help. From what he's seen of her in his one week at Yamaku, she knows very little about her classmates. Most of what he expected her to know would have been through things Lilly had told her. He began to turn around to leave.

"Well, thanks for the help anyways. See you around, Ha-"

"No! Wait!"

Hanako's sudden outburst took him by surprise.

"What is it?"

Hanako retreated back into herself. The puzzled look on her face was half-covered by her hair.

"Th-there was something st-strange that I saw earlier this morning."

Hisao turned back around to face Hanako. Slowly, so as to not startle her.

"What did you see?"

He could see Hanako making her best effort to speak clearly and concisely. It was almost a bit cute how much she was trying to help out.

"I saw… a strange man. He looked kind of sad, but also a bit angry. He put s-some sort of paper under Yuna's door. Then he was touching the n-nameplate for a b-bit, and th-then he left…"

Hisao began to worry.

"A… a strange man? Do you think he may have been a relative of hers, or somebody Yuna knew? What did he look like?"

Hanako hesitated again before speaking.

"N-no… or at least, I d-don't think so… He didn't look much like her. H-he was tall, but he slouched a lot. He moved weirdly, like h-he wasn't fully awake… and he kept talking to s-something, like a person that wasn't there…"

That was certainly unsettling. But it didn't quite answer his question.

"Hanako, can you tell me more about his physical features? Did he look like he had a good reason for being near Yuna's door," Hisao asked.

"He d-didn't look anything like her… at least, I don't think so… I tried to avoid looking at him… Since I don't like it when people look at me like I'm weird…"

 _Yeah, that figures_ , Hisao thought. Hanako was heavily burned on her right side, and people were constantly looking at her scars. He did too, before he started getting to know her.

"But… he did look kind of foreign... A-And he was here really early in the morning. Before the s-s-sun came up."

"What?" Hisao responded in disbelief. This was just bizarre. What exactly was a foreigner doing leaving notes around a high school for the disabled?

"What happened then?"

Hanako hesitated again before answering. Hisao realized that his tone and line of questioning might have been starting to freak her out.

"H-H… He left… and a little l-later, Y-Yuna came out… a-and then she didn't come back…" There was almost a note of terror in her voice. Hisao continued to be increasingly worried.

"Maybe we should find a staff member or teacher. They might be able to check the security cameras and see what happened."

"Y-yeah… tha-that's a good idea…"

Hisao looked at her again. She had probably had more social interaction with him in the past few minutes than she had had the entire day.

"Well, I'll go and get somebody then. I'll be back soon. Unless you want to come with me?"

Hanako slowly slid back into her room. "A-actually… I th-think I'll stay here for a bit…"

That was probably for the best. Not only were there plenty of strangers moving through the school at the moment, one of them might be responsible for the disappearance of a student.

"Alright then. But promise me you'll go get somebody if you see something else."

From behind the door, he could barely make out Hanako replying with a stuttered "S-s-sure…"

He spun around and started heading back down the hallway. He figured that there should be some sort of staff nearby the entrance to the dorms, if not in the main gathering area of the building. He had to go tell someone what Hanako had seen. They might question the two of them about it later, but so be it. As he started heading down the staircase, he began moving faster. He could feel his heart rate increasing. _Man,_ he thought. _I am really out of shape. I used to play soccer; stairs shouldn't tire me out this much._

Hisao headed into the building lobby. His heart kept beating faster. He was starting to get short on breath. By the time he reached the main doors out of the girls dorms, he was incredibly out of breath. Even if he found somebody at this second, he'd barely be able to get the words out between his straining for air. Before he left the building, he decided to sit down for a minute beside the door to an unused room. He leaned back on the door, and started taking deep breaths.

For some reason, he started to doubt Hanako. He had no idea why; it's just like something popped into his head, and suddenly he thought something seemed off about her description. After all, she was awfully descriptive of the man, given that she usually hid in her room all day and tried not to look at people. It really did seem out of the ordinary for her. He returned his attention to his heart. He needed to slow it down before his arrhythmia started to act up again.

 _Slow down Hisao, you're doing fine. Just pushing it a little,_ he thought. _Slow down, and start thinking. You're getting yourself all worked up._ He started going through his thoughts, trying to think of comforting things that would calm himself down.

 _Maybe Hanako was exaggerating a bit_ , he thought. Not that he believed she had been lying to him for any reason; she was just a bit socially illiterate. Maybe she misinterpreted what she saw? Maybe it was just a friend of Yuna's who looked older. A boyfriend, possibly? That would certainly make more sense than some weird foreigner sliding her notes under her door in the early hours of the morning. Maybe that's all Hanako saw.

As he tried to think through it, he had felt himself become a bit calmer. The more Hisao thought about it, the more he began to believe that Hanako was overreacting to something normal for most people. It simply didn't make sense otherwise. Sure, Hanako could be right, and there could be some weird pervert or something going around and secretly giving letters to high school students, but that seemed a bit out there. After all, something like that could probably be found easier or done easier on the internet nowadays. Maybe he didn't even need to go get a security guard? Hisao began to laugh at how apprehensive he had been. Besides-

"Hello? Is someone out there?"

Hisao froze mid-laugh. He had heard the voice of a girl about his age coming from somewhere not far off. He looked around to see where the voice had come from. He looked past the corner to his left- nobody was there. He looked up the staircase from where he had come- nobody was there. He looked out into the doorway between the girls dorm and the outside campus- again, nothing. Therefore, Hisao figured, the voice could only have come from…

"Yes. My name is Hisao Nakai. Where are you," Hisao asked in reply. The voice came again, this time from behind him.

"I'm in this room here. Could you come on in by any chance? I think I've fallen, and I need some help getting up."

"Sure, just a moment." Hisao firmly knocked on the door he had been leaning against. "You're in here, right?"

"Yes, I think that's the one."

Hisao tried to open the door, but it didn't open. The doorknob was stuck, and would barely move.

"Hey, did you lock this door when you came in? I can't get it open," he said.

"No… although in hindsight, I probably should have. Is there a key nearby?"

Hisao looked around the doorframe for a moment, but found nothing. He looked on top of the frame, around the sides, under the entrance mat; and he didn't have a single thing to show for it, other than dust.

"I'm not seeing anything out here. Are you sure you didn't lock it," he asked.

"Yes, I'm certain."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence as Hisao tried to figure out a way to get in the room. The first idea he had was to just break the door down. He sized up the door to see what the likelihood of that was, but given the size of the door and his scrawny body, he dismissed that option pretty quickly. The second idea he had was to find a staff member with keys to the doors. He figured that someone should be close by, given that the festival was still in full swing.

"Hey, wait here for a moment. I'm going to go get someone with a key to open this door," he said.

"Thank you!"

Hisao turned and left the door. He was only a few feet away from the entrance to the building when he heard the voice call back to him.

"Oh, one last thing," the voice said. "If anyone asks, my name is Yuna Yamada!"

Hisao froze in his tracks.

"Wait," he said. He began to walk back to the door. "You said your name was Yuna? Yuna Yamada?"

"Yes," responded Yuna. "Why do you ask?"

"People have been looking for you for hours! Have you been in there all day?"

"Hours…" she said. "Wait, what time is it now?"

Hisao checked his watch. "It's about seven in the afternoon. The festival's nearly over, and your classmates are worried sick about you."

Yuna responded with a sense of terror in her voice.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I had just come in here to meet So-"

Yuna paused for a moment, as if she was about to say something and thought better of it.

"I had just come in here to speak to somebody for a moment, and then… I don't remember what happened after that. I must have fallen asleep or something!" She was trying her best to maintain an apologetic tone, but it was soon overtaken by a tone of panic.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…" she said.

Hisao, now with a newfound determination to get the door open and Yuna out of the room, turned around again and prepared to run to find a staff member.

"Lilly is going to kill me…" he could hear Yuna say.

However, as Hisao got to the building exit again, he heard a noise just behind Yuna's panicked muttering.

 _Click!_

It had come from the door.

"What was that," Yuna asked. Evidently, she had heard it too. She paused for a moment.

"You don't think it might have been the door, do you," she asked.

"It could have been. Let me check."

Hisao moved back to the door for a second time. As he placed his hand on the doorknob, he could feel it move freely in his hand. Sure enough, the door was unlocked.

"Yeah, it was the door. I guess it's unlocked now."

"Great," Yuna said. "Come on in. I'm not exactly in the best state to see people at the moment, but still come in. I think I'll need some help getting up; for some reason, I can't seem to move at the moment."

 _Wait, what?_ _What does she mean, she "can't seem to move at the moment,"_ he thought as he opened the door.

"What do you mean you ca-"

For the third time in a handful of minutes, Hisao froze in his place. He seemed to have made a habit of that in the past hour or so. However, unlike the last few times, he froze here not out of confusion, or out of suspicion, but out of an entirely new emotion.

As the door continued to open, light from the hallway began to illuminate the room. The sliver from the doorway gradually grew across the floor and back wall, with every inch of newly visible space bringing a new wonder to Hisao's eye. Inside the room, he saw Yuna, baring… _everything_.

Her pale skin glistened in the light. Her long hair, clearly dyed white, rested against the sides and front of her admittedly very pretty figure, highlighting several parts of her body that Hisao simply could not draw his attention away from. Her eyes were clouded, presumably from her being blind, but they still gave the look of a strong, confident woman, one who Hisao could have seen himself trying to date had he had enough time previously. Although her leg was lifted and bent at the knee in just the right position to keep him from seeing something lewd, he could imagine what lay beyond it in his line of sight. In one look, Hisao found himself completely infatuated with Yuna. He could feel himself blushing furiously, seeing the undressed girl before him, lying almost seductively against the back wall of the room. Impure thoughts raced through Hisao's mind.

In his rush to process what lay before him, Hisao's mind had skipped a number of steps and details about the situation before him. After an incredibly awkward moment of staring at Yuna's legs, chest, and eyes, his mind caught up with his eyes, and he noticed what may have been the most important detail about Yuna; her chest, or lack thereof.

Hisao could see every inch of Yuna's body, both outside, _and inside._ A large, gaping hole was present in her torso. Near the edges of the hole, skin and muscle curled outwards at impossible directions. He could see the tips of the bones of her rib, spine, and pelvis beyond that. Hisao could look directly at the inside of her back muscles from the hole; everything else between her sternum and pelvis was simply _gone._ Or at least, gone from where it was supposed to be.

"Wh… w… _what?!_ "

Yuna turned her head to look Hisao in the eyes. Or at least, what she may have thought were his eyes. She had actually been looking just slightly to Hisao's left, and a little lower than his head. More in line with his neck and breastbone.

"What is it? Is something wrong? I can't exactly see what you're looking at…"

 _She's fucking talking,_ Hisao thought. _The inside of her chest is gone, and she's fucking talking._

Hisao took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"What… happened… to you?"

Yuna looked at him in mild confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What… happened… between you coming into this room… and now," Hisao asked. "Tell… tell me _absolutely everything._ It's important."

Yuna thought on her own for a moment.

"Well, I received a note from my boyfriend telling me to come here for…" She paused for a moment, as if trying to find a way to word her thoughts. "...reasons you can guess by my current state of dress."

"Alright… go on."

"When I got here, I heard him in the room… Or at least, I think it was him. He didn't say anything or respond to me when I spoke. We… enjoyed ourselves, and then I guess I fell asleep for a bit. I woke up a short while before I heard you by the door."

"So… you have no idea what happened to you?"

Yuna was at this point a bit irritated. Hisao would normally realize that it may have something to do with the intensely personal nature of his line of questioning, but he was still mentally stuck on trying to figure out how much of the room was colored pinkish red before Yuna got here.

"If you're asking for more detail, then I'm not indulging you, pervert."

Hisao was taken aback. The detachment of her mind from the situation was jarring, much like the detachment of her lungs from her rib cage. It had been a few years since he had taken biology, but he was fairly certain that you needed lungs to speak.

"N-No, it's not that… I guess… Can you move your arms at all? You might want to put a hand on your stomach…"

Yuna looked at him in slight confusion and disgust.

"What are you talking about?" Despite her annoyance, she complied. "I don't see what this has to do with-" Her hand came to rest on the inside of the small of her back, several centimeters beyond where it should have stopped on her belly.

" _Oh."_

There were three times in Yuna's life where she was truly and completely speechless. The first was when she had learned of the condition that affected her nerves. On that Saturday evening at the doctor's office, as she had the test results read out to her, she had found herself in the company of only one other person; her father. He was the man who gave her life a beginning. The second was when her boyfriend, Sora Sato, the man of her dreams, confessed his feelings to her. There, she found herself in the company of only one other person; Sora himself. He was the man who she thought gave her life a meaning. The third was now, when she placed her hand through her own chest and felt her back from the inside. Here, she found herself in the company of only one other person; Hisao. He was the man she just met, who would give her life the greatest change in it. On all three occasions, she had been all but alone, with one other man by her side. Or so she had thought. On that last day, the day of the festival, there was another man who shared the moment with her and Hisao. He was the man she did not know. He was the man that, even if she were without her blindness, she would not be able to see.

And these are the things that young Yuna Yamada could not see:

She could not see the look of total fear on Hisao's face; the look of total fear that likely mimicked her own, as the horror of her final moments began to set in on her.

She could not see the light from the doorway Hisao dissipating, in spite of the door not having moved a single inch to cover it.

She could not see the figure of the man who had appeared behind Hisao, the man with sunken eyes, low slouch, and blank expression; nor could she see the ethereal figure standing next to him that delivered an impossibly powerful strike to Hisao's throat from behind him.

Had she seen the pair, maybe she would have screamed, recoiled in terror, or otherwise called out to Hisao to warn him of his impending fate. But it was fine, she would soon decide. Soon, there would no longer be anything for her to not be able to see.

Yuna could feel her life begin to drift away from her, as she released what was left of its blood. She could feel her soul begin to drift away from her body, as she released what was left of her hope. And as her soul moved slowly upwards, she could see for the first time in her life. She could see the body of Hisao, lying unconscious on the ground. She could see the man who had taken her life that morning, as he began to slip away through the doorway, unnoticed by the crowd moving through. And she could see the ethereal figure that went beside him, mimicking his movements. Or maybe she could see the ethereal figure, whose movements were mimicked by the man.

But as she felt her soul being pulled towards the afterlife, Yuna Yamada saw one last sight, one which gave her an unparalleled hope. Just as the ethereal figure followed its partner in crime out of the room, she saw a second figure, different from the first. A figure that stood beside the body of Hisao. Not a soul, like had left her body, but something else, arriving at his. She looked away from Hisao, and she turned her soul to the light.

On this day, the golden wind of fate had taken away the old life of Yuna Yamada. But in return, it brought with it the new life of Hisao Nakai.


End file.
